1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a record storage and retrieval solution. More particularly, the present invention relates to a Call Detail Records (CDR) storage and retrieval solution in a telecommunications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the telecommunications field, a necessary operation is the generation of records identifying information about a telecommunications operation between at least two points. For example, for billing purposes, it is typically necessary to know who initiated a telephone call and where that telephone call originated, who was in receipt of the telephone call, what telephone network the recipient was on, when the call occurred, and for how long, for example. In a wireless telecommunications area, all this information can be collated and used for current billing of each customer, as well as billing between networks. For example, based on the usage of a first network's customers of a second network's services the second network may bill the first network for that usage.
Again, using the wireless telecommunications example, during or after a wireless connection between at least two end users, information of that connection is generated and stored by one or more of the corresponding networks. For example, a Business Intelligence (BI) application extracts information from a network's signaling system to create Call Detail Records (CDRs), which provide information pertaining to the individual calls made on the network in one file. Further, in one example, a Call Detail Record (CDR) is opened when a call/transaction setup message is captured by the system and closed either when a release/disconnection message is detected or when a timeout expires. Every CDR may contain all the main parameters about the calls and/or the transactions. A single system can capture, analyze and deliver more than 500,000 calls/transactions per hour. Typically the call information is placed in flat (comma delimited text) records to form the CDRs, with each CDR record being stored in the system's memory, on the local hard disk and, optionally, delivered to a remote, centralized system called a CDR Server.
The aforementioned signaling system is typically a Signaling System 7 (SS7), which is merely a standard telecommunications protocol defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a way to offload public switched telephone network (PSTN) data traffic congestion onto a wireless or wireline digital broadband network. In different areas of the world, differing signaling systems are implemented. Regardless, embodiments of the present invention are equally applicable.
SS7 is characterized by high-speed circuit switching and out-of-band signaling using Service Switching Points (SSPs), Signal Transfer Points (STPs), and Service Control Points (SCPs) (collectively referred to as signaling points, or SS7 nodes). Out-of-band signaling is signaling that does not take place over the same path as the data transfer (or conversation). A separate digital channel is created (called a signaling link), where messages are exchanged between network elements at 56 or 64 kilobit per second. These messages go back and forth setting up a call even before the recipient hears a dial tone. The messages help determine which route should be taken, whether the trunk route is free, and whether the recipient's phone is off the hook, for example. Although these messages are typically not included in the records of a CDR file, they are used to help build the CDR records.
Once CDRs have been generated and transported to a Data Management Component (DMC), or any data management system, a BI application can enhance the data using customer-supplied network reference data, and may enable the CDR data to be placed into a database, e.g., a relational database management system (RDBMS).
The BI application may summarize the call information in the form of daily network activity reports, which associate and quantify calls made through interconnected carriers. As noted above, these reports can be used by network and business managers to generate billing to customers or other networks. In addition, such reports can be used to make informed business decisions, since they can illustrate call volumes and network usage.
In addition, as noted above, the volume of the records stored in each CDR is traditionally extremely large. Thus, it is imperative to efficiently store (Compress/Archive) and retrieve selected CDR records (Restoration), and manage the accumulation (Archive Maintenance) of the CDRs, which store these individual records. Further, there is a need for a solution specifically for archiving literally terabytes of data. Typically, each record in a CDR may be 182 fields (in comma delimited text), amounting to around 2,000 bytes. In each CDR file there are tens of thousands of these records, potentially resulting in hundreds of thousands of records depending upon the size of the network.
If the CDR files are compressed, to conserve storage capacity, then there also is a need for a retrieval capacity for select CDR files and/or records from within that file. For example, there may be government regulations requiring such CDR files information to be stored for a period of time, e.g., 180 days, so such records could be used for tariff dispute resolution between networks, e.g., between wireless carriers. The tariff resolution may merely be one carrier questioning the billing statement presented to them from another carrier. The billing carrier may then need to decompress a large number of CDR files, and their corresponding records, to present the required proof for the billing. However, presently there is not an efficient solution for archiving and retrieving such CDR files. Large volumes of CDR files may need to be decompressed and then an extensive search of those files would be required, when the billing controversy was only concerning a select few records, e.g., records from a particular period of time or from or to a particular network.
Thus, the present invention overcomes the above problems in conventional systems by providing an efficient archival and retrieval solution for records.